Fantastic video, and probably my favorite D&D channel on youtube. I've been playing for 35 years, started in 2nd grade. I didn't pay much attention to the happenings of D&D in a more meta concept back then, with respect to TSR / business decisions / Gary as a person, etc. It's so refreshing to hear your retellings of the history of the game, without defaulting to the current year spin of 'omg Gary was such a terrible human being.'
I'm so glad you found the channel and are enjoying my content! It's always great to hear feedback like that. Thank you so much for watching, and also for taking the time to write this very nice comment. Cheers!
28:30 Because wands are supposed to be aimed at the target like a ray gun, wand didn't casts spells per se. That's why in Rules Cyclopedia, as an optional rule, a character can add their Dex bonus to Saving Throw versus wands. Wands were basically guns of D&D, and wand users were basically gunslingers. Offensive wands have effects based on energy, like cold or lighting. It was about speed, agility and ducking behind cover (imagine fight scene in Ministry of Magic from HP Order of Phoenix movie). Staves, from the other hand, were not aimed at target (narratively you can imagine a spellcaster holding staff above their head when using it), and often affected areas or groups rather the individuals (like Staff of Command). Offensive staffs applied usually mind altering effects so it was about willpower, not agility. One can not "dodge" a charm, like they could ray of frost. I like how Gavin Norman renamed "Wands" to "Rays" in his Dolmenwood variant of B/X. It's way easier to grasp an idea that way.
This is such a great explanation! If I'd spent just a bit of time, I probably could've gotten there, but I love that you outlined it so clearly. Thank you! And, thanks for watching and commenting, and also for your support of the channel. Cheers!
Thanks for the video! The PH(B) is always the best known book of its respective edition. "(. . .) because he didn't think the players should know ahead of time what number they needed to roll. I don't know why but he just didn't." It's my understanding that Gary was always modifying the percentage chance of a player character managing to do whatever it was the player was declaring. So in his mind, he was picturing a vast array of subtables with every nuanced description. He was constantly calculating the odds and they were always situationally unique, which is why the table (and all the rules) were simply guidelines. This is why I previously suggested the DMG and Survival guides were the perfect compliment of books to read, absorb, then ignore at the table, because once the original ideas for how to adjudicate any given situation is in your head, they are only as useful situationally as guidelines for the unique circumstances a DM is facing with his particular group on any particular day. The DM at the table needs to decide how much to tweak a die roll if earlier in an adventure Biff the Cleric lost a backpack strap but is now being helped to climb a rough cliff face up twenty feet to a cavern landing where a tunnel leads to a chamber of goblins who may or may not being slyly scooching small stones off the ledge above to make the climb more difficult though Timmy the Thief and Dirk the Fighter are helping Biff find handholds. No table or rule can be pre-written or pre-constructed to account for all of that because no game rule designer can know the minds of RPGers until they describe their intended action(s). The rules are only guidelines because they are merely DM prep work. This is further complicated because the players, through their PCs, don't have all the information and telling them the number they need to roll can often give them information they should not have, like the hidden goblins above making the climb, and thus the roll, more difficult. A player might know what they needed to roll in a previous situation which was similar but sans goblins.
This is such a great way to explain this! I have a player in my long-running 3.X game who hates playing this way! His enjoyment comes out of system mastery and being able to figure out the odds of needing to do "all the things" and then building a character who eliminates, or at least greatly decreases, the odds of failing to do those things. He's the kind of guy who "dips into a class" for a Saving Throw boost or whatever, like taking a level of Paladin so he can add his Charisma bonus to his Saves, etc. And he also can call out when he realizes that I've changed something (increased a monster's hit points, for example, or he'll do math on the fly and say things like "If this thing is AC 28 and it was X hit points, that means it's beyond the CR we should be fighting, so we should get extra XP for it." That's how he has fun, but honestly it drives me nuts! I really prefer to play the way you describe above, which is that as the DM, I'm making a situational ruling and the players are a bit in the dark as to what's happening, which increases the tension. Thanks for your explanation, and of course for watching and commenting!
Ah yes, the character creation CD that came with 3.0. I think I still have mine. I remember it was very limited and not supported. I was teed off that I couldn't do prestige classes with it. But in the 3.5 era a group of Excel savants created HeroForge and put it out for free. It and a companion spreadsheet SpellForge were constantly updated as new books came out. It stopped being updated about the time WotC moved to 4th edition.
Yes, I think that's correct! So much of the art in the original three books were copies of Marvel Comics stuff including Sgt. Fury, Dr. Strange, and more. Thanks for the reminder!
First lemme say I love all your videos. I listen to them a lot while driving. Keep doing them! I didn’t play much of AD&D/Wizard’s D&D (BECMI is what I played most of the time), but I am a fan of the AD&D 2nd ed. core hardcovers, in the original printing you show, for the art, the clean layout and the clear approach to the rules.
Thank you so much for letting me know! I really appreciate it, and I'm so glad you enjoy them. I've been hearing from a lot of folks who listen rather than watch, which I think is great. I never did get the 2nd Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, but I did think the cleaner layout of the 2E Player's Handbook was easier to read and learn (although to be honest I did miss some of the flowery text from Gary Gygax, also known as "High Gygaxian"). And the 2E "Monstrous Manual" is probably my favorite monster book, mostly due to the fantastic art by Tony DiTerlizzi. Thanks for watching and commenting!
For my money I do think the 3.5 phb has the most inspiration for a player to make a new character. The others are mostly clinical (other than 1e). I'd like to see a break down of how rules for exploration and dungeon crawling have changed in the various editions. The procedures in B/X and BECMI are so smart, and I can't remember any of the other books having anything even close to that for actual rules for exploration.
I definitely will! Thank you so much for watching that part! I have a great time doing it, even though I know it slightly messes up my metrics with the folks who don't watch that part (so my "% Watched" is lower than it could be). Vince is one of my favorites! I think I've featured a few of his records on here before, including the Halloween and Christmas ones.
Nice video, as usual. I love how you give attention and credit to the whole crew who created these books. Actually, Gary Gygax created AD&D so he wouldn't have to pay Dave Arneson further royalties (although it didn't exactly work out that way). If you haven't listened to it already, I highly recommend listening to the When We Were Wizards podcast. I think you would particularly enjoy it and find it fascinating.
Yes, indeed! I've mentioned the royalties issue a few times here on the channel so I'm always wary of repeating myself (as I get comments sometimes from folks who tell me that I repeat myself too much) but also I need to remember that there are some folks who haven't visited before. A few videos ago, I did a video on D&D Foundations and History (which is what a huge portion of my channel is about) and I specifically mentioned When We Were Wizards (I've been listening to it on my morning walks): ruclips.net/video/JPG5jBea0jk/видео.htmlsi=xBZFoasD7egLCpWy Thank you so much for watching and also for taking the time to comment, and most importantly for subscribing to the channel. I really appreciate it. Cheers!
Thanks Martin! Bought The Making of Original D&D. Great facsimiles for everything just before and after the brown box. Favorite edition is 2nd; my grandmother bought me all the core books for my birthday.
I was (and am) a little obsessive about taking care of my books, because my parents paid for almost all of them as gifts, and after losing a few toys due to my neglect as a kid, I was very cognizant of the idea that my parents spent money on this stuff and therefore to show them respect, I should take care of it. That's not to mean that folks with well-worn books weren't being respectful, but more just about my neuroses about being ultra careful with mine. Thank you so much for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel. I really appreciate it!
Great video! Silly note on 2e and psionics: if you wanted to play the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, you'd have to have a copy of the Complete Psionics Handbook. Very much a part of that world. Keep up the great work!
All of Easley's art is really great! I just have a huge nostalgia soft-spot for that Trampier cover of the Player's Handbook, and I still think, for me, that it embodies what a D&D is really all about.
I started with B/X in 1981 but we quickly began adding bits and pieces from Advanced to our games. I loved all the new options! Thanks for watching and commenting!
The 1e phb absolutely doesn't tell you how to generate ability scores. In fact it explicitly tells you to ask your dm. It neither tells you how to create a fighter or how to hit an orc with one.
18:35 I remember that in my college's ttrpg club, there was one guy who ran open DND oneshots every meeting week and I think the lowest player count he ever got was around 5-6 for weeks right before some break while the highest was always at the start of a semester and there was one game with 19 players at once which was a mess but as terrible as it sounds because the guy was a good GM overall.
Wow! The most I've ever DM'd at once was I think nine, and that took a lot of coordination, partially just to find a date that worked for everyone! Thanks for watching and commenting!
I started in the mid-to-late 80s with AD&D and, while it existed, few if any of my peers owned Unearthed Arcana, so I started as a 1.0 edition player. After a year or so, though, more friends were insisting on stuff from what one could call 1.5 ed, which I felt needlessly complicated things. Once 2.0 came along, I welcomed it as simplifying some of the things I felt were excessive. Also, I have never played BX, but with what I've just said, I reckon my ideal game sits in an imaginary space between it and AD&D 2.0
I've been very surprised how popular 2nd Edition is in the comments here (in a good way). It seems there's quite a bit of nostalgia and/or genuine interest in continuing to play it. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 Could partly be nostalgia. While it was not my first, it was my first experience of a fresh edition. Having said that, in my gang I was in the minority at the time. Anyway, my homebrew since then has pretty much turned into the personal 'ideal' I described above.
OH WOW! That is such a huge compliment, because I often don't feel like I know what I'm doing. Thank you for saying that, and I'm really glad to have inspired you. Thank you so much for letting me know, and good luck with your channel. On my way over to subscribe as we speak. Cheers!
1e to hit tables always made me sad - for the relatively short time I played it. 2e THAC0 is basically the same but felt more unified, because it was just the one number and mental math. Also no more weapon speed factor. Also I don’t think we ever really used non weapon proficiencies across the 10 years off and on we played it.
I initially really liked NWPs because I felt that it was a great short-hand way to explain my character and what made him "different." But I was mainly creating NPCs during this time and it never really came up because the majority of those NPCs never got used in a game. Back in the 1E days, we never used Weapon Speed Factors or Weapon vs AC tables in our games! But that was mainly because we just continued playing B/X while incorporating the new races, classes, equipment, spells, monsters, and treasure from AD&D!
great video. I think a key change that could have discussed is the move on the change from a guide to rules as a way for players to work to. I feel that 5E has changed the option to sandbox and change the rules with its digital content make them less flexible and customizable
It is interesting to see how the approaches changed over time. My first group mixed and matched original, basic, and AD&D to fit our own interests. Short of the competition space, I have never understood the rules lawyering. My wife loves Vince Guaraldi, so I ordered that album for her birthday.
How about comparing spell lists between editions? Like a video comparing first level spell selection for Arcane spells, then another for Divine spells, then another comparing Misc.
That's a great topic! I did a few spells like that on Twitter a few years ago, but that's a great idea for a video. Thanks for the suggestion. And, thanks for watching, commenting, and your support of the channel. Cheers!
@7:30 It's crazy how "correct" OD&D got it beneath the admittedly terrible formatting and lack of explanation. I suspect 95% of new DM's would think rolling for treasure is stupid compared to their careful and brilliant hand-crafted selections. But in practice, letting the players roll for treasure after defeating a monster adds a lot of interest *and* greatly enhances immersion. I know OD&D means for the DM to roll loot, not players, but players rolling for loot is one of the addictive underlying premises in everything from Diablo to modern gacha games. Allowing players to roll is a powerful psychological enhancement to "this is an impartial world and not a story told by the DM". No DM would dare give a dragon zero treasure, or a single kobold a powerful magic item, but IRL sometimes the dragon just got robbed by another party or the kobold just came across the corpse of a 10th level fighter. A random table gives a small chance either might happen. I'd also add the standard treasure tables, much like the wandering monster tables, the reaction tables, and virtually every other random table can and should be tailored to your world. I always hated how, for example, B/X D&D presents the 2d6 reaction table without also suggesting "you probably want to radically tailor this reaction table for, say, a human city vs. a forest vs. the 4th layer of Hell).
exactly, Cypher System is the mechanics extracted from Numenera, so it's settingless and can be used to run any genre. It's also the system behind Old Gods of Appalachia and the upcoming The Magnus Archives games.
It's such a great song. My parents had the original three records on vinyl and I remember once I figured that out, I copied them all on cassette tape and used to listen to them in the car on the way to work. Great stuff!
Yes, as well as the "Example of Melee" on page 71 of the DMG. I kept going over and over my books and finally gave up, thinking I had imagined it or that I was thinking of the example of play from one of the Basic sets. Thanks for catching that!
1st edition for me.....got it for my 13th birthday my mum gave me a tenner and we were in Leeds so one trip to a store I can't remember sent me on a rightt quest!!
My 1E PHB is the revised version, I think 3rd printing, with the later cover art. Sadly it has stains from being stored in the basement for many years so my PDF copy is the same as yours! I am tempted to get the 3E book to see if the rules might be helpful toying with my B/X mashed with 1E homebrew. Another fascinating deep dive into an arcane lore of this hobby.
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. Since you're working on a B/X - 1E mash-up, I just thought I'd ask if you've checked out "Advanced Fantasy" for Old School Essentials. It is essentially a mash-up of those two (but using the B/X rules engine). For 3E, you can always find the 3E SRD online for free and check that out first before purchasing! www.d20srd.org/index.htm
@@daddyrolleda1 not yet but heard of it, I have Basic Fantasy and DCC, so I am gravitating to the OSR orbit! The history often gjves me insights into both why and how to use things from the game that I often only saw in one dimension.
I bought a used 1e PHB from a cool store and it was expensive, but it was moldy smelling, really worn, and has the quick reference in the back torn out and missing. I bought another one for cheaper ($60 vs $95 lol) which is less worn but has the same page missing and torn out. Screw it, I’ll probably stick with PDF or maybe Print on Demand and (probably) throw these ruined ones out. I could try selling them to the store again but they probably won’t pay that much and passes the problem on to the next person like it was passed on to me.
Ah, thank you! I was driving myself crazy trying to look for it and I finally gave up because I didn't want to delay recording the video any longer. At least I know I'm not crazy for thinking it was in there. Cheers!
In 1989 I was working on a Masters. I bumped into an old DnD bud in the Student Union. Me: Hey, what brings you back? Him: Going to grad school. Me: You guys playing DnD? Him: Yeah, it's 2e. Me: Didn't know there was a new ed. Him: Here, take a look. Me [look at ability scores, particularly exception Str; at inverted armor class; at multiclass rules] Me: They didn't fix anything that was broken. Waste of time. Him: I thought you'd say that...
I started with 4.5, played 5e from 2014-22, and then switched to osr systems. I've been reflecting on what I want out of a role-playing game, and how closely different editions achieve that. What I've concluded is that in TSR editions, the rules are primarily for the DM. In WotC editions, the rules are primarily for the player. Not 100% in either case, but as you said, you can play in a B/X campaign while barely using the rules, but the idea a 3e player could do that is laughable. And for my money, that makes the TSR editions better for roleplaying. Role playing is when you make decisions as if you were the character, and the fewer conceptual barriers there are between you and the character, the more closely you can make decisions in their place. The more you think about the rules of the game, the less you are really embodying the character.
I largely agree with your thoughts here and it's one of the reasons why I went back to running B/X for my daughter and her friends versus running 5E for them even though that was the current edition. Thank you for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel!
The example of play in AD&D 1e is in the DMG, a combat example in the Combat section, continued later in the Campaign section. Because... well I can't think of a reason why, but that's 1e for you. ;)
I KNEW there was one, and I really did flip through both my PHB and DMG before I just gave up and decided I was crazy. I should've spent a few more minutes looking. Thanks for catching that. Cheers!
Re: thumbnail: I first saw this with the thumbnail saying something along the line of "Which was better?" which made me less interested, but I knew coming from you it would be good content anyway. When I got around to watching it, thumbnail had changed to a more generic comparison, which reassured me. I don't see the point in saying which edition phb is the "best" because it's all subjective and depends on what you want to get out of the system. od&d, 1e, 2e, 3e, .., 5e, they're all good and each of them is someone's favorite. (I kid, I kid, friends and I had many a fun time playing the tactical skirmish board game.)
Thanks! Thumbnails are... difficult for me. I know that the majority of my subscribers are going to want to watch, but I am trying to grow my audience. And I thought I might try to capitalize on what everybody else is talking about so that RUclips doesn't bury my channel right now since I'm not *really* going to play the new edition but that's what the majority of D&D RUclips fans want to see. I also have in my mind that maybe somebody who is new to the game will see this and it will inspire them to want to check out previous editions. I've been making use of RUclips new "Thumbnail Test" feature, which allows creators to create three Thumbnails and run them at the same time to determine which one generates the most interest. The problem with me doing that is that recently, all my Thumbnails are similar enough that they all get roughly ~33% of the views, which doesn't help the test! In any event, thank you so much for sticking with it and watching and I hope that you did eventually enjoy the video. I did enjoy your joke about 4E! Cheers!
Can you cover mystara if you haven't already, and especially why it's format was kind of dropped in the TTRPG community writers? I mean in the sense of the gazetteer format in the sense of a cartography, history, and high level NPCs?
I never noticed the Mystara line until I saw the RC in a book store. At first I mistook it for AD&D Book. I soon began collecting and playing Mystara products like crazy. Before that I always brushed off Basic D&D Products.
@@MrRourk I just got into it a couple of days ago. There is a guy who made a crazy amount of Mystara 15 minute or so discussions on different lands, peoples, history, and factions. I find it completely fascinating. I don't super like basic D&D, but I can see how basic become so popular.
I still use AD&D when running 5e games because sometimes I like tossing in ancient spell scrolls and also my lich's and ancient monsters use old versions of spells instead of 5e versions. With that said, AD&D 2e is where I started, 3.5 is my favorite, 5e is what I've played the most out of convenience.
Doing some research for a video of my own, about the D&D multi-verse. I have been trying to get at its roots, so I’m going to look at the video you mentioned here about that subject. I’m a 2e guy so I know about that editions take on the planes. What I’m trying to find out is where to look for info in OD&D, Basic, and 1e. I know 1e had the manual of the planes, and I assume that the DMG had some info. Thanks to this video I now know the player’s handbook touched on the planes as well. I also know there were somethings like the demon web pits, and the settings that had stuff like Dragon lance setting calling all the lower planes the abyss. I just need to get the details on the older editions, thanks for putting out this information.
Ah! Then you'll want to watch both of those videos (there's one that's mainly alignment focused and the follow-up is more planes-focused, but they are a pair). They go into the first mention of planes in OD&D, articles in Dragon Magazine, a deeper dive into that appendix in the 1E Player's Handbook, and more. I think you'll find it helpful.
@@ChrisMoneymakerDHRG 1) D&D Alignment and Planes: ruclips.net/video/b6QE5_Yydl0/видео.htmlsi=86ynMLvzwIN0xCh6 2) D&D Planes Including Planescape: ruclips.net/video/2JqOqNv4KTE/видео.htmlsi=P4nYDaLBrv4eN20m Also, you can always scroll through my "D&D History" Playlist to see if there are other topics that interest you: ruclips.net/p/PLX6jue56rzl0uAZIFwywJXIMXWVULmTqh&si=tweUxyea5TBgf7ts
Thank you so much, both of you! I guess I could've looked it up in my "old" 5E book before making the video, but since I don't script my videos, I don't always know what I'm going to say. Thanks for the clarification! Cheers! (Also, most importantly... thank you both for subscribing).
Okay, good to know! I'd honestly not even thought about it until I was making this video and was reminded that my 3E book had it. Thanks for watching and commenting!
The Illusionist in 1st Edition was a fully fledged subclass. With its own spells and own exp table. Equal in any way to the druid, paladin, or any other subclass. 2nd Edition erased the Illusionist class and you only have the wizard who can get a bonus to casting certain spells by specialization in schools. There is no subclass of wizard in 2nd Edition.
Enjoying this comparison, even though I played with most of these at one time or another, back in the day. A different perspective can bring new things to light. Random thought triggered by your video thumbnail: *_when did you start referring to the Players Handbook as “PHB”? Or first hear others refer to it that way?_* I’ve been trying to track down the origin of that abbreviation. All through the ‘80s and ‘90s, I only ever encountered “PH” as the abbreviation for that book - one initial per word, just like “DMG” and “MM”. When I played a D&D3[.5]E game in the mid-‘00s, “PHB” seemed to be the norm. I used to think that the shift happened with D&D3[.5]E, but i didn’t play D&D between ~’95 and 2003, so I could’ve missed an earlier cultural shift. And then I started running into folks like you who played AD&D (or even earlier) and [now] use “PHB”, and that got me wondering if the difference wasn’t time, but place: that maybe some regions of the country adopted “PHB” as the cultural norm, and others “PH”? If so, I’m wondering if there’s a reason. To me it’s “obvious” that, absent confusion or pronounceability or some other specific reason, you take 1 letter per significant word when forming an initialism. So that makes me wonder if there’s a traceable origin for the extra letter. I suspect not, but I keep looking/asking. 😁
I have the whole 3.5 rules set on my shelf. Player's handbook, manual of the planes and dungeon master's guide. I don't care what happened after that. 3.5 rules them all! By the way there is another rulebook [at the risk of being that guy] - no rules. I have played tabletop total freeform e.g vampire the masquerade freeform style rules.
3.5 was AMAZING. The absolute BEST OGL and to me, the Golden Age of content. I have about 125 various 3.5 Hardcovers alone, plus another 100+ soft covers from all the different publishers of that time. I am STILL playing and running a group in 3.5. These guys played 5.0 and then came to 3.5. They say they like it much more just do to the options available.....
Another awesome video! I think you should get the 2024 PHB just to complete the collection, not so much to do a video. Two thousend youtubers and their cat are doing that already. But if money is tight, then pass.
i’m so disappointed because I was sure you would explain why Half-Elves are racist and its so great that WOTC deleted them. JK!! Thanks for your love of Dnd. I also started in 1981. I had a very diverse group of friends in our games in Queens. Kids from Chinese, Indian, Jewish and Jamaican families and its was so weird no one noticed the “white supremacy” that WOTC has discovered. Obviously we had a lot to learn. :)
Exactly! I mean... Shadowdark did it, right? All in one easy-to-use Tome. For another old-school example, the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia from 1991 managed it!
@@Ha1cy0n Fair enough. I didn't get the 2024 PHB and right now am not planning to, mainly because I don't see myself ever running it. I used a picture of the table of contents I found online as part of my retrospective of 50 years of Players Handbooks. I spend most of my time in the video talking about how Men & Magic set the stage for the contents of the PHB for decades to come. I just figured I'd let the algorithm work for me by capitalizing on what everybody else is talking about to try to bring some new viewers to the channel to they can learn about D&D history. I even mention my recent poll about whether I should cover the new edition and my current decision not to.
I appreciate it! And I don't even own the new PHB and right now am not planning on buying it. The video is focused on the changes in the PHB across editions, spending the most time on Men & Magic, 1E and 2E. I figured folks who like my D&D History videos would watch it for that, and maybe I'd snag a few 5E players and teach them some history while I was at it!
Ha! I don't even own the new PHB and right now am not planning on buying it. The video is focused on the changes in the PHB across editions, spending the most time on Men & Magic, 1E and 2E. I figured folks who like my D&D History videos would watch it for that, and maybe I'd snag a few 5E players and teach them some history while I was at it!
Thanks! I've been thinking about that, as a few other folks have suggested it, as well. I've been thinking about how to re-record them to avoid mentioning what I'm looking at, since folks wouldn't be able to see, and also to try to improve the audio quality, as I know that's a big part of what makes podcasts popular. Thanks for the support! I'll let you know if I figure it out!
Please never call yourself a nobody. You are awesome!
Thank you very, very much. I really appreciate your kind words and your continued support of the channel. It means the world to me. Cheers!
Fantastic video, and probably my favorite D&D channel on youtube. I've been playing for 35 years, started in 2nd grade. I didn't pay much attention to the happenings of D&D in a more meta concept back then, with respect to TSR / business decisions / Gary as a person, etc.
It's so refreshing to hear your retellings of the history of the game, without defaulting to the current year spin of 'omg Gary was such a terrible human being.'
I'm so glad you found the channel and are enjoying my content! It's always great to hear feedback like that.
Thank you so much for watching, and also for taking the time to write this very nice comment. Cheers!
This is an excellent topic for a video. I would also like to see one about the DMG, which probably differs even more between Editions.
I will add it to the list! I have one about the 1E DMG specifically but can add an overview of al of them for a future video. Thanks!
@@daddyrolleda1 no problem, looking forward to it! And thanks for the content
@@daddyrolleda1 Yes, please! Also maybe your favorite DM resource books?
I can’t wait to watch this one! I find myself wondering if you have a 4E PHB to show in the video…
@@randyandrews1980 You might be surprised!
Thank you so much for your support!
28:30 Because wands are supposed to be aimed at the target like a ray gun, wand didn't casts spells per se. That's why in Rules Cyclopedia, as an optional rule, a character can add their Dex bonus to Saving Throw versus wands. Wands were basically guns of D&D, and wand users were basically gunslingers. Offensive wands have effects based on energy, like cold or lighting. It was about speed, agility and ducking behind cover (imagine fight scene in Ministry of Magic from HP Order of Phoenix movie).
Staves, from the other hand, were not aimed at target (narratively you can imagine a spellcaster holding staff above their head when using it), and often affected areas or groups rather the individuals (like Staff of Command). Offensive staffs applied usually mind altering effects so it was about willpower, not agility. One can not "dodge" a charm, like they could ray of frost.
I like how Gavin Norman renamed "Wands" to "Rays" in his Dolmenwood variant of B/X. It's way easier to grasp an idea that way.
This is such a great explanation! If I'd spent just a bit of time, I probably could've gotten there, but I love that you outlined it so clearly. Thank you! And, thanks for watching and commenting, and also for your support of the channel. Cheers!
How were rods distinguished?
@@originaluddite rods were techniacally staves but usable by noncasters.
Thanks for the video! The PH(B) is always the best known book of its respective edition. "(. . .) because he didn't think the players should know ahead of time what number they needed to roll. I don't know why but he just didn't." It's my understanding that Gary was always modifying the percentage chance of a player character managing to do whatever it was the player was declaring. So in his mind, he was picturing a vast array of subtables with every nuanced description. He was constantly calculating the odds and they were always situationally unique, which is why the table (and all the rules) were simply guidelines. This is why I previously suggested the DMG and Survival guides were the perfect compliment of books to read, absorb, then ignore at the table, because once the original ideas for how to adjudicate any given situation is in your head, they are only as useful situationally as guidelines for the unique circumstances a DM is facing with his particular group on any particular day. The DM at the table needs to decide how much to tweak a die roll if earlier in an adventure Biff the Cleric lost a backpack strap but is now being helped to climb a rough cliff face up twenty feet to a cavern landing where a tunnel leads to a chamber of goblins who may or may not being slyly scooching small stones off the ledge above to make the climb more difficult though Timmy the Thief and Dirk the Fighter are helping Biff find handholds. No table or rule can be pre-written or pre-constructed to account for all of that because no game rule designer can know the minds of RPGers until they describe their intended action(s). The rules are only guidelines because they are merely DM prep work. This is further complicated because the players, through their PCs, don't have all the information and telling them the number they need to roll can often give them information they should not have, like the hidden goblins above making the climb, and thus the roll, more difficult. A player might know what they needed to roll in a previous situation which was similar but sans goblins.
This is such a great way to explain this! I have a player in my long-running 3.X game who hates playing this way! His enjoyment comes out of system mastery and being able to figure out the odds of needing to do "all the things" and then building a character who eliminates, or at least greatly decreases, the odds of failing to do those things. He's the kind of guy who "dips into a class" for a Saving Throw boost or whatever, like taking a level of Paladin so he can add his Charisma bonus to his Saves, etc. And he also can call out when he realizes that I've changed something (increased a monster's hit points, for example, or he'll do math on the fly and say things like "If this thing is AC 28 and it was X hit points, that means it's beyond the CR we should be fighting, so we should get extra XP for it."
That's how he has fun, but honestly it drives me nuts! I really prefer to play the way you describe above, which is that as the DM, I'm making a situational ruling and the players are a bit in the dark as to what's happening, which increases the tension.
Thanks for your explanation, and of course for watching and commenting!
Ah yes, the character creation CD that came with 3.0. I think I still have mine. I remember it was very limited and not supported. I was teed off that I couldn't do prestige classes with it. But in the 3.5 era a group of Excel savants created HeroForge and put it out for free. It and a companion spreadsheet SpellForge were constantly updated as new books came out. It stopped being updated about the time WotC moved to 4th edition.
Thanks for the excellent video. The Bell 'barbarian' drawing was a swipe from a Marvel comic (N Fury I think).
Yes, I think that's correct! So much of the art in the original three books were copies of Marvel Comics stuff including Sgt. Fury, Dr. Strange, and more. Thanks for the reminder!
First lemme say I love all your videos. I listen to them a lot while driving. Keep doing them!
I didn’t play much of AD&D/Wizard’s D&D (BECMI is what I played most of the time), but I am a fan of the AD&D 2nd ed. core hardcovers, in the original printing you show, for the art, the clean layout and the clear approach to the rules.
Thank you so much for letting me know! I really appreciate it, and I'm so glad you enjoy them. I've been hearing from a lot of folks who listen rather than watch, which I think is great.
I never did get the 2nd Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, but I did think the cleaner layout of the 2E Player's Handbook was easier to read and learn (although to be honest I did miss some of the flowery text from Gary Gygax, also known as "High Gygaxian"). And the 2E "Monstrous Manual" is probably my favorite monster book, mostly due to the fantastic art by Tony DiTerlizzi.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
For my money I do think the 3.5 phb has the most inspiration for a player to make a new character. The others are mostly clinical (other than 1e). I'd like to see a break down of how rules for exploration and dungeon crawling have changed in the various editions. The procedures in B/X and BECMI are so smart, and I can't remember any of the other books having anything even close to that for actual rules for exploration.
I've only ever played 5e but am interested in previous editions. This is great stuff.
You should try at least one adventure in each!
@@spartaninvirginia That would be awesome. Brutal. But awesome!
Never played anything after 2nd.
@@geofftottenperthcoys9944 Do you prefer 1st or 2nd?
Shout out for the Vince Guaraldi music at the end. Hope you keep doing the drink and music overviews.
I definitely will! Thank you so much for watching that part! I have a great time doing it, even though I know it slightly messes up my metrics with the folks who don't watch that part (so my "% Watched" is lower than it could be).
Vince is one of my favorites! I think I've featured a few of his records on here before, including the Halloween and Christmas ones.
Nice video, as usual. I love how you give attention and credit to the whole crew who created these books. Actually, Gary Gygax created AD&D so he wouldn't have to pay Dave Arneson further royalties (although it didn't exactly work out that way). If you haven't listened to it already, I highly recommend listening to the When We Were Wizards podcast. I think you would particularly enjoy it and find it fascinating.
Yes, indeed! I've mentioned the royalties issue a few times here on the channel so I'm always wary of repeating myself (as I get comments sometimes from folks who tell me that I repeat myself too much) but also I need to remember that there are some folks who haven't visited before.
A few videos ago, I did a video on D&D Foundations and History (which is what a huge portion of my channel is about) and I specifically mentioned When We Were Wizards (I've been listening to it on my morning walks): ruclips.net/video/JPG5jBea0jk/видео.htmlsi=xBZFoasD7egLCpWy
Thank you so much for watching and also for taking the time to comment, and most importantly for subscribing to the channel. I really appreciate it. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 thanks Martin. I need to pay better attention to your videos. I should go back and watch that previous video you made.
Thanks Martin! Bought The Making of Original D&D. Great facsimiles for everything just before and after the brown box. Favorite edition is 2nd; my grandmother bought me all the core books for my birthday.
Your 1e copy is beautiful. Mine is shredded, but I’m happy to have it.
I was (and am) a little obsessive about taking care of my books, because my parents paid for almost all of them as gifts, and after losing a few toys due to my neglect as a kid, I was very cognizant of the idea that my parents spent money on this stuff and therefore to show them respect, I should take care of it.
That's not to mean that folks with well-worn books weren't being respectful, but more just about my neuroses about being ultra careful with mine.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel. I really appreciate it!
I have no intention of buying anything from Wotc but this was a great video on the founding editions
The covers show the progression of how D&D has transformed from fantasy to "super" fantasy. I'll take AD&D. : )
Great video! Silly note on 2e and psionics: if you wanted to play the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, you'd have to have a copy of the Complete Psionics Handbook. Very much a part of that world. Keep up the great work!
Easy to play without it
Another great Video! I mostly use the 2nd Edition Revised Jeff Easley cover PHB and the 1st edition, Jeff Easley cover DMG
All of Easley's art is really great! I just have a huge nostalgia soft-spot for that Trampier cover of the Player's Handbook, and I still think, for me, that it embodies what a D&D is really all about.
Don't mind me, I'm just here for the 1974-1999.
Advanced is where I started as I was only a year old when DnD came out in 1974.
I started with B/X in 1981 but we quickly began adding bits and pieces from Advanced to our games. I loved all the new options!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
My favorite players handbook for D&D is the Mentzer Basic PHB. Short, sweet, to the point.
The 1e phb absolutely doesn't tell you how to generate ability scores. In fact it explicitly tells you to ask your dm. It neither tells you how to create a fighter or how to hit an orc with one.
18:35 I remember that in my college's ttrpg club, there was one guy who ran open DND oneshots every meeting week and I think the lowest player count he ever got was around 5-6 for weeks right before some break while the highest was always at the start of a semester and there was one game with 19 players at once which was a mess but as terrible as it sounds because the guy was a good GM overall.
Wow! The most I've ever DM'd at once was I think nine, and that took a lot of coordination, partially just to find a date that worked for everyone!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I started in the mid-to-late 80s with AD&D and, while it existed, few if any of my peers owned Unearthed Arcana, so I started as a 1.0 edition player. After a year or so, though, more friends were insisting on stuff from what one could call 1.5 ed, which I felt needlessly complicated things. Once 2.0 came along, I welcomed it as simplifying some of the things I felt were excessive. Also, I have never played BX, but with what I've just said, I reckon my ideal game sits in an imaginary space between it and AD&D 2.0
I've been very surprised how popular 2nd Edition is in the comments here (in a good way). It seems there's quite a bit of nostalgia and/or genuine interest in continuing to play it.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 Could partly be nostalgia. While it was not my first, it was my first experience of a fresh edition. Having said that, in my gang I was in the minority at the time. Anyway, my homebrew since then has pretty much turned into the personal 'ideal' I described above.
Thanks for the video, your channel was one of the inspirations for mine.
OH WOW! That is such a huge compliment, because I often don't feel like I know what I'm doing. Thank you for saying that, and I'm really glad to have inspired you. Thank you so much for letting me know, and good luck with your channel. On my way over to subscribe as we speak. Cheers!
1e to hit tables always made me sad - for the relatively short time I played it. 2e THAC0 is basically the same but felt more unified, because it was just the one number and mental math. Also no more weapon speed factor.
Also I don’t think we ever really used non weapon proficiencies across the 10 years off and on we played it.
I initially really liked NWPs because I felt that it was a great short-hand way to explain my character and what made him "different." But I was mainly creating NPCs during this time and it never really came up because the majority of those NPCs never got used in a game.
Back in the 1E days, we never used Weapon Speed Factors or Weapon vs AC tables in our games! But that was mainly because we just continued playing B/X while incorporating the new races, classes, equipment, spells, monsters, and treasure from AD&D!
great video. I think a key change that could have discussed is the move on the change from a guide to rules as a way for players to work to. I feel that 5E has changed the option to sandbox and change the rules with its digital content make them less flexible and customizable
It is interesting to see how the approaches changed over time. My first group mixed and matched original, basic, and AD&D to fit our own interests. Short of the competition space, I have never understood the rules lawyering. My wife loves Vince Guaraldi, so I ordered that album for her birthday.
Great video... One note -- the 'sample play' in AD&D 1e is located in the DMG:)
How about comparing spell lists between editions? Like a video comparing first level spell selection for Arcane spells, then another for Divine spells, then another comparing Misc.
That's a great topic! I did a few spells like that on Twitter a few years ago, but that's a great idea for a video. Thanks for the suggestion. And, thanks for watching, commenting, and your support of the channel. Cheers!
@7:30 It's crazy how "correct" OD&D got it beneath the admittedly terrible formatting and lack of explanation. I suspect 95% of new DM's would think rolling for treasure is stupid compared to their careful and brilliant hand-crafted selections. But in practice, letting the players roll for treasure after defeating a monster adds a lot of interest *and* greatly enhances immersion. I know OD&D means for the DM to roll loot, not players, but players rolling for loot is one of the addictive underlying premises in everything from Diablo to modern gacha games. Allowing players to roll is a powerful psychological enhancement to "this is an impartial world and not a story told by the DM". No DM would dare give a dragon zero treasure, or a single kobold a powerful magic item, but IRL sometimes the dragon just got robbed by another party or the kobold just came across the corpse of a 10th level fighter. A random table gives a small chance either might happen.
I'd also add the standard treasure tables, much like the wandering monster tables, the reaction tables, and virtually every other random table can and should be tailored to your world. I always hated how, for example, B/X D&D presents the 2d6 reaction table without also suggesting "you probably want to radically tailor this reaction table for, say, a human city vs. a forest vs. the 4th layer of Hell).
Thanks!
I appreciate this so very much! Thank you very much for your support of my channel. Cheers to you!
exactly, Cypher System is the mechanics extracted from Numenera, so it's settingless and can be used to run any genre. It's also the system behind Old Gods of Appalachia and the upcoming The Magnus Archives games.
Ah, yes! And I do recall you design for that system. I know a lot of folks who are big fans.
Thanks!
To this day I still love Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy.
It's such a great song. My parents had the original three records on vinyl and I remember once I figured that out, I copied them all on cassette tape and used to listen to them in the car on the way to work. Great stuff!
presumably @1:04:22 you are thinking of page 105 of the 1e PHB
"example of combat"
Yes, as well as the "Example of Melee" on page 71 of the DMG. I kept going over and over my books and finally gave up, thinking I had imagined it or that I was thinking of the example of play from one of the Basic sets. Thanks for catching that!
1st edition for me.....got it for my 13th birthday my mum gave me a tenner and we were in Leeds so one trip to a store I can't remember sent me on a rightt quest!!
Combo of 1st and 2nd for me.
My 1E PHB is the revised version, I think 3rd printing, with the later cover art. Sadly it has stains from being stored in the basement for many years so my PDF copy is the same as yours!
I am tempted to get the 3E book to see if the rules might be helpful toying with my B/X mashed with 1E homebrew.
Another fascinating deep dive into an arcane lore of this hobby.
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video.
Since you're working on a B/X - 1E mash-up, I just thought I'd ask if you've checked out "Advanced Fantasy" for Old School Essentials. It is essentially a mash-up of those two (but using the B/X rules engine).
For 3E, you can always find the 3E SRD online for free and check that out first before purchasing! www.d20srd.org/index.htm
@@daddyrolleda1 not yet but heard of it, I have Basic Fantasy and DCC, so I am gravitating to the OSR orbit! The history often gjves me insights into both why and how to use things from the game that I often only saw in one dimension.
I bought a used 1e PHB from a cool store and it was expensive, but it was moldy smelling, really worn, and has the quick reference in the back torn out and missing. I bought another one for cheaper ($60 vs $95 lol) which is less worn but has the same page missing and torn out. Screw it, I’ll probably stick with PDF or maybe Print on Demand and (probably) throw these ruined ones out. I could try selling them to the store again but they probably won’t pay that much and passes the problem on to the next person like it was passed on to me.
The example of play for 1e is in the DMG with the spider next to the map.
Ah, thank you! I was driving myself crazy trying to look for it and I finally gave up because I didn't want to delay recording the video any longer. At least I know I'm not crazy for thinking it was in there. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 no problem, it’s called ‘The first dungeon adventure’ and starts on page 96
In 1989 I was working on a Masters. I bumped into an old DnD bud in the Student Union.
Me: Hey, what brings you back?
Him: Going to grad school.
Me: You guys playing DnD?
Him: Yeah, it's 2e.
Me: Didn't know there was a new ed.
Him: Here, take a look.
Me [look at ability scores, particularly exception Str; at inverted armor class; at multiclass rules]
Me: They didn't fix anything that was broken. Waste of time.
Him: I thought you'd say that...
I started with 4.5, played 5e from 2014-22, and then switched to osr systems. I've been reflecting on what I want out of a role-playing game, and how closely different editions achieve that.
What I've concluded is that in TSR editions, the rules are primarily for the DM. In WotC editions, the rules are primarily for the player. Not 100% in either case, but as you said, you can play in a B/X campaign while barely using the rules, but the idea a 3e player could do that is laughable.
And for my money, that makes the TSR editions better for roleplaying. Role playing is when you make decisions as if you were the character, and the fewer conceptual barriers there are between you and the character, the more closely you can make decisions in their place. The more you think about the rules of the game, the less you are really embodying the character.
I largely agree with your thoughts here and it's one of the reasons why I went back to running B/X for my daughter and her friends versus running 5E for them even though that was the current edition.
Thank you for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel!
The example of play in AD&D 1e is in the DMG, a combat example in the Combat section, continued later in the Campaign section. Because... well I can't think of a reason why, but that's 1e for you. ;)
I KNEW there was one, and I really did flip through both my PHB and DMG before I just gave up and decided I was crazy. I should've spent a few more minutes looking. Thanks for catching that. Cheers!
Re: thumbnail: I first saw this with the thumbnail saying something along the line of "Which was better?" which made me less interested, but I knew coming from you it would be good content anyway. When I got around to watching it, thumbnail had changed to a more generic comparison, which reassured me.
I don't see the point in saying which edition phb is the "best" because it's all subjective and depends on what you want to get out of the system. od&d, 1e, 2e, 3e, .., 5e, they're all good and each of them is someone's favorite.
(I kid, I kid, friends and I had many a fun time playing the tactical skirmish board game.)
Thanks! Thumbnails are... difficult for me. I know that the majority of my subscribers are going to want to watch, but I am trying to grow my audience. And I thought I might try to capitalize on what everybody else is talking about so that RUclips doesn't bury my channel right now since I'm not *really* going to play the new edition but that's what the majority of D&D RUclips fans want to see.
I also have in my mind that maybe somebody who is new to the game will see this and it will inspire them to want to check out previous editions. I've been making use of RUclips new "Thumbnail Test" feature, which allows creators to create three Thumbnails and run them at the same time to determine which one generates the most interest. The problem with me doing that is that recently, all my Thumbnails are similar enough that they all get roughly ~33% of the views, which doesn't help the test!
In any event, thank you so much for sticking with it and watching and I hope that you did eventually enjoy the video. I did enjoy your joke about 4E!
Cheers!
It looks like they’ve taken huge inspiration from OSR books which the newer layout and backgrounds
Thanks
This is amazing! Thank you so much for your support. I truly appreciate it. Cheers!
Can you cover mystara if you haven't already, and especially why it's format was kind of dropped in the TTRPG community writers? I mean in the sense of the gazetteer format in the sense of a cartography, history, and high level NPCs?
I never noticed the Mystara line until I saw the RC in a book store. At first I mistook it for AD&D Book. I soon began collecting and playing Mystara products like crazy. Before that I always brushed off Basic D&D Products.
@@MrRourk I just got into it a couple of days ago. There is a guy who made a crazy amount of Mystara 15 minute or so discussions on different lands, peoples, history, and factions. I find it completely fascinating.
I don't super like basic D&D, but I can see how basic become so popular.
I still use AD&D when running 5e games because sometimes I like tossing in ancient spell scrolls and also my lich's and ancient monsters use old versions of spells instead of 5e versions. With that said, AD&D 2e is where I started, 3.5 is my favorite, 5e is what I've played the most out of convenience.
Doing some research for a video of my own, about the D&D multi-verse. I have been trying to get at its roots, so I’m going to look at the video you mentioned here about that subject. I’m a 2e guy so I know about that editions take on the planes. What I’m trying to find out is where to look for info in OD&D, Basic, and 1e. I know 1e had the manual of the planes, and I assume that the DMG had some info. Thanks to this video I now know the player’s handbook touched on the planes as well. I also know there were somethings like the demon web pits, and the settings that had stuff like Dragon lance setting calling all the lower planes the abyss. I just need to get the details on the older editions, thanks for putting out this information.
Ah! Then you'll want to watch both of those videos (there's one that's mainly alignment focused and the follow-up is more planes-focused, but they are a pair). They go into the first mention of planes in OD&D, articles in Dragon Magazine, a deeper dive into that appendix in the 1E Player's Handbook, and more. I think you'll find it helpful.
What were the titles of those videos.
@@ChrisMoneymakerDHRG 1) D&D Alignment and Planes: ruclips.net/video/b6QE5_Yydl0/видео.htmlsi=86ynMLvzwIN0xCh6
2) D&D Planes Including Planescape: ruclips.net/video/2JqOqNv4KTE/видео.htmlsi=P4nYDaLBrv4eN20m
Also, you can always scroll through my "D&D History" Playlist to see if there are other topics that interest you: ruclips.net/p/PLX6jue56rzl0uAZIFwywJXIMXWVULmTqh&si=tweUxyea5TBgf7ts
@@daddyrolleda1 Thanks
Get the PDF of the new edition PHB. That way you can at least look through it, but aren’t deeply invested.
Almost two hour video? Fantastic.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it when you get a chance to listen/watch. Cheers!
Ad&d phb was my first one .
Assassin and Thief are both subclasses of Rogue in 5e (2014)
I'm unsure if they have both stuck around in the new rules.
They're both in the new 2024 5e
Thank you so much, both of you! I guess I could've looked it up in my "old" 5E book before making the video, but since I don't script my videos, I don't always know what I'm going to say. Thanks for the clarification! Cheers!
(Also, most importantly... thank you both for subscribing).
3.5 did not come with any character creation software.
Okay, good to know! I'd honestly not even thought about it until I was making this video and was reminded that my 3E book had it.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
The Illusionist in 1st Edition was a fully fledged subclass. With its own spells and own exp table. Equal in any way to the druid, paladin, or any other subclass. 2nd Edition erased the Illusionist class and you only have the wizard who can get a bonus to casting certain spells by specialization in schools. There is no subclass of wizard in 2nd Edition.
awesome vid ty
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for watching, and for letting me know. Cheers!
Enjoying this comparison, even though I played with most of these at one time or another, back in the day. A different perspective can bring new things to light.
Random thought triggered by your video thumbnail: *_when did you start referring to the Players Handbook as “PHB”? Or first hear others refer to it that way?_*
I’ve been trying to track down the origin of that abbreviation. All through the ‘80s and ‘90s, I only ever encountered “PH” as the abbreviation for that book - one initial per word, just like “DMG” and “MM”. When I played a D&D3[.5]E game in the mid-‘00s, “PHB” seemed to be the norm. I used to think that the shift happened with D&D3[.5]E, but i didn’t play D&D between ~’95 and 2003, so I could’ve missed an earlier cultural shift.
And then I started running into folks like you who played AD&D (or even earlier) and [now] use “PHB”, and that got me wondering if the difference wasn’t time, but place: that maybe some regions of the country adopted “PHB” as the cultural norm, and others “PH”?
If so, I’m wondering if there’s a reason. To me it’s “obvious” that, absent confusion or pronounceability or some other specific reason, you take 1 letter per significant word when forming an initialism. So that makes me wonder if there’s a traceable origin for the extra letter. I suspect not, but I keep looking/asking. 😁
Good video. Cheers 🥃
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Cheers to you!
Which one page dungeon contest are you with?
This one! www.dungeoncontest.com/
Thanks for watching and commenting. I really appreciate it. Are you thinking of entering the contest next year?
I have the whole 3.5 rules set on my shelf. Player's handbook, manual of the planes and dungeon master's guide. I don't care what happened after that. 3.5 rules them all!
By the way there is another rulebook [at the risk of being that guy] - no rules. I have played tabletop total freeform e.g vampire the masquerade freeform style rules.
3.5 was AMAZING. The absolute BEST OGL and to me, the Golden Age of content. I have about 125 various 3.5 Hardcovers alone, plus another 100+ soft covers from all the different publishers of that time. I am STILL playing and running a group in 3.5. These guys played 5.0 and then came to 3.5. They say they like it much more just do to the options available.....
Rock on! Play the version you love! That's Basic/Expert for me
Do you eman that happened something after 2e?
I have the original edition, but I used to have the blue one. Mine is battered and beaten but we use it every session
52:07 - Probably the one RPG book I've spent the most time in (including the '2.5' version). The next closest would be V:tDA.
good video :)
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching, and for letting me know. Cheers!
Great vid!
25:53 15 gold for a quiver with 20 arrows?!?
@@IM-Silviu They weren't kidding around!!!
Another awesome video! I think you should get the 2024 PHB just to complete the collection, not so much to do a video. Two thousend youtubers and their cat are doing that already. But if money is tight, then pass.
Easy! Anything BEFORE the 2000's is good!
Anything else is crap!
What did 3rd edition change the correct order to?
i’m so disappointed because I was sure you would explain why Half-Elves are racist and its so great that WOTC deleted them. JK!!
Thanks for your love of Dnd. I also started in 1981. I had a very diverse group of friends in our games in Queens. Kids from Chinese, Indian, Jewish and Jamaican families and its was so weird no one noticed the “white supremacy” that WOTC has discovered. Obviously we had a lot to learn. :)
Just put PHB, MM, and GMG all in one tomb. Problem solved.
A nearly 1000 page book. Insane.
@@spartaninvirginia just cut out most of the unneeded fluff
Exactly! I mean... Shadowdark did it, right? All in one easy-to-use Tome.
For another old-school example, the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia from 1991 managed it!
Hasbro D&D isn't for me. Nor will I support the financially. I have better games systems I can use.
@@Ha1cy0n Fair enough. I didn't get the 2024 PHB and right now am not planning to, mainly because I don't see myself ever running it. I used a picture of the table of contents I found online as part of my retrospective of 50 years of Players Handbooks. I spend most of my time in the video talking about how Men & Magic set the stage for the contents of the PHB for decades to come. I just figured I'd let the algorithm work for me by capitalizing on what everybody else is talking about to try to bring some new viewers to the channel to they can learn about D&D history. I even mention my recent poll about whether I should cover the new edition and my current decision not to.
Zero interest, so here's a comment for the algo you know what.
I appreciate it! And I don't even own the new PHB and right now am not planning on buying it. The video is focused on the changes in the PHB across editions, spending the most time on Men & Magic, 1E and 2E. I figured folks who like my D&D History videos would watch it for that, and maybe I'd snag a few 5E players and teach them some history while I was at it!
What a weird comment lmao
@@insomnicide94 I think it was specifically replying to whether he would be interested in the latest Player's Handbook.
What has changed? Hasbro-Wiz gaveus even more reasons not to buy it.
Dont support this company
Ha! I don't even own the new PHB and right now am not planning on buying it. The video is focused on the changes in the PHB across editions, spending the most time on Men & Magic, 1E and 2E. I figured folks who like my D&D History videos would watch it for that, and maybe I'd snag a few 5E players and teach them some history while I was at it!
MP3/Podcast these somewhere!
Thanks! I've been thinking about that, as a few other folks have suggested it, as well. I've been thinking about how to re-record them to avoid mentioning what I'm looking at, since folks wouldn't be able to see, and also to try to improve the audio quality, as I know that's a big part of what makes podcasts popular.
Thanks for the support! I'll let you know if I figure it out!